


Nickname

by daitsukki



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Firsts, M/M, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-28
Updated: 2015-07-28
Packaged: 2018-04-11 18:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4447376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daitsukki/pseuds/daitsukki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All he knew was that when Yamaguchi left a few hours later with an experimental “Bye Tsukki!” before practically sprinting from his front door, and when he played the ridiculous name back to himself as he got ready for bed (mouthing ‘Tsukki’ around his toothbrush and grimacing at his reflection), was that he really didn’t mind. Maybe not at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nickname

Before Yamaguchi, no one had ever given Tsukishima a nickname.

He’d have probably ignored them out of general disdain anyway, even his brother just called him plain Kei, no cringey ‘chans’ tacked on the end (although it wasn’t as if Akiteru hadn’t tried). Hell, he couldn’t really say whether he’d had proper friends before Yamaguchi, not that he particularly cared or needed them. He was too much of a ‘strong personality’ as a teacher once put it through gritted teeth, but he knew that she actually meant he was too much of an asshole- something he’d been completely aware of anyway. Again, not that he cared. Not really.

Then he met Yamaguchi, completely by accident, unwittingly playing the part of his knight in Nike trainers or something when some idiot kids were trying to make him their lackey for that week. Tsukishima just couldn’t resist cutting in especially when their ringleader, a loud-mouthed pipsqueak, tilted his head back and demanded what the taller boy was looking at in a voice probably higher than his IQ. It had nothing to do with Yamaguchi himself of course; nothing to do with his balled hands, his enormous eyes spilling over with tears, his cheeks trailed with gleaming tracks. Nothing to do with how those eyes somehow got bigger afterwards when Tsukishima sourly told him to quit being such a doormat, and absolutely _nothing_ to do with his lips stilling and stretching hesitantly into a smile as he stammered an introduction.

There was no getting rid of Yamaguchi after that. For all intents and purposes he was welded to Tsukishima’s side, chirping about random things that had happened to him that day, asking Tsukishima how _his_ day was, or whether he wanted to get meat buns after school, or if he wanted to come over, or anything, everything. For someone who hadn’t said a word in his own defence he was pretty damn talkative Tsukishima had acidly pointed out, which only made Yamaguchi’s eyes widen even more, cheeks colouring as he replied.

“But I’m not as cool as you Tsukishima-kun, I’d have no idea what to say.”

“Doesn’t matter. It’s better than people making you do things you don’t want to do all the time, it’s pathetic. And it’s got nothing to do with being cool.”

That was something else someone had never done; admired him. Tsukishima knew he could be a pain in the ass and he revelled in it, pushing all the wrong buttons, digging at people’s weak spots for reasons he didn’t really get himself. It didn’t exactly warrant much in terms of friendship, but here was Yamaguchi, snickering behind his hand at every snide comment Tsukishima made, although sometimes it earned him a rare glance of quiet disapproval instead. But the dark-haired boy stuck around regardless. Which was the weirdest part of all.

At first, Tsukishima tried to shake off his newest (only) fan, sharply asking if he had anywhere else to be, anyone else to irritate. When that didn’t work, he tried to flat out ignore Yamaguchi, which did nothing if not make the dark-haired boy more enthusiastic about getting his attention. Eventually, Tsukishima had to accept that one of the only good deeds he’d ever done had won him a sidekick in the form of a beaming freckled ball of energy. It wasn’t all bad, to be fair. Now he had someone to walk home with, someone to show his favourite bands, someone to practice volleyball with who didn’t storm off trailed by insults after ten minutes. Yamaguchi was even kind of good at it after a while, his eagerness apparently applicable in other ways than just putting up Tsukishima’s scoffs at missing easy receives. The boy was a saint, he decided bitterly. That or just totally masochistic. Whichever it was, it _was_ kind of nice having someone who actually volunteered to be his partner in class, and whenever they laughed over something stupid at lunch, or Yamaguchi grinned at him from across the shoe lockers at the end of school, he caught himself being begrudgingly glad that Yamaguchi had chosen to latch on to him of all people. Not that he’d ever admit it though. He had a reputation of being a heartless asshole to maintain.

 

The nickname sort of just fell out Yamaguchi’s mouth one day, like most of what he said, and Tsukishima would have killed him if he hadn’t looked so utterly mortified and smacked his hands over his mouth, like a kid swearing in front of an adult by mistake. It had taken long enough for him to stop using ‘Tsukishima-kun’, and by the time he’d summoned enough confidence to drop the honorific they had known each other for over a year, even though he’d just been ‘Yamaguchi’ since the day they’d met.

It had happened in Tsukishima’s room, homework being agonised over as the beat of some inaudible song playing from his desk speakers was all but drowned out by the drone of the ceiling fan. Well, Yamaguchi was agonising. The smaller boy perched cross-legged on the bed, head bowed over his textbook while the other sat across from him rapping his pencil against the page, staring blank-eyed at the light that glanced off Yamaguchi’s hair like a halo (made sense, considering he was a saint and everything). Eventually, the pencil slid from between Tsukishima’s twitching fingers and rolled to the floor, breaking through his haze. He leaned down to pick it up with a quiet sigh; the springs of the bed squeaked while Yamaguchi practically dove forward to do the same. Their heads cracked together like a bad comedy movie, knocking Tsukishima’s glasses crooked and burning crimson into Yamaguchi’s cheeks.

“Calm down, I can get it myself.” Tsukishima snapped, snatching the pencil from the carpet as a fidgeting Yamaguchi looked on, one hand clasped to his forehead.

“Right yeah, sorry! That was stupid of me-”

“Whatever, Yamaguchi.”

“- but Tsukki, I’m really-! I’m really… um…”

The stuttering faded into mortified silence.

Tsukishima straightened his glasses deliberately and heaved himself upright again. That is, once he was sure the blush that had leapt to the surface of his cheeks was _entirely gone_. Possibly more humiliating than the stupid name itself. “What?”

The hand on Yamaguchi’s head leapt to his mouth, his apology stifled.

“I’m sorry, I’m really sorry Tsuk- Tsukishima-kun! Sorry. Crap, I didn’t mean- I mean it’s just- it’s shorter? Um. I was going to say your whole name and kind of just stopped, I’m sor-“

“Just shut up Yamaguchi.”

“Right. Yeah. Sorry! Tsukishima. Not Tsukki.”

Tsukishima nearly cracked a smile then, but settled for narrowing his eyes and finally opening his own textbook. After a minute of nothing but the contending fan and music (and watching Yamaguchi awkwardly tug at a lock of inky hair), he sucked in a slow casual breath.

“You’re seriously an idiot.” He paused. "Tadashi.”

Over the top of his frames he saw Yamaguchi’s cheeks flood with red again, and he couldn’t hold back a grin this time. He leaned back against frame of the bed and twined his arms across his chest, trying to quash a weird bubble of warmth rising in it as Yamaguchi glanced up at him hopefully. “Seriously though, ‘Tsukki’? Yeah it’s shorter but it makes me sound like a 9 year-old girl.”

“It was an accident though, I’m really sorry! I’ll never say it again I swear-”

“Yeah, don’t. And stop apologising so much, you know how annoying that is.”

More silence. He sighed as his friend’s shoulders drooped a fraction, trying to ignore how it made the heat in his chest ebb. “Jesus. Okay look, I… don’t mind? I mean, I really don’t care.” Tsukishima rubbed the back of his neck, probably still lingering with unwelcome red from earlier (Why? Why did he blush? He didn’t even think he’d been physically capable of doing that) “Call me whatever you want. Just… not in front of other people maybe, it’s embarrassing enough just the two of us.”

The smile he got in return was equal parts bright and incredulous, but he decided not to bring it up again that afternoon, only muttering that Yamaguchi maybe not speak for the rest of his life before insisting they actually get some work done. He was sort of surprised at himself for letting it slide so easily. He didn’t even know what he should have done otherwise: scoffed, came up with some snarky retort, demanded a promise to never hear it again? Maybe. All he knew was that when Yamaguchi left a few hours later with an experimental “Bye Tsukki!” before practically sprinting from his front door, and when he played the ridiculous name back to himself as he got ready for bed (mouthing ‘Tsukki’ around his toothbrush and grimacing at his reflection), was that he really _didn’t_ mind. Maybe not at all.

So much for the heartless asshole thing.

 

His weakening on the nickname front did him no favours later on, which he had kind of expected. Soon he was letting Yamaguchi get away with all kinds of stupid things, like thumbing Tsukishima’s headphone cords or the keychain on his bag as they walked to and from school, and one incident, frankly embarrassing in hindsight, where cautious fingers ruffled the top of his head when he’d had a particularly crappy day (and had managed to be more of an jackass than usual). When ‘Tsukki’ finally made it's debut in public, his swipe at Yamaguchi’s arm was half- hearted at best and when it happened again, he only managed an eye roll before turning away. It eventually worked its way into part Yamaguchi’s daily vocabulary, peals of “Tsukki, wait!”, “Hey Tsukki!”, and the infamous “Sorry Tsukki!”, which their whole class was repeatedly subjected to through the course of an average school day. If it hadn’t been Yamaguchi, who may as well have been some sort of heavenly being in personality, he would’ve thought that he was being screwed with. Then again, Yamaguchi was an exception to most things. To anyone else, calling Tsukishima by the name was practically a death sentence, quickly established when some boys in their class were towered over and lifted by their collars for calling after him in high mocking voices.

Not that it never got irritating; it had bound to be at some point, mainly after hard practices when he was bone-tired and covered in bruises, and Yamaguchi just wouldn’t _shut up_ , chattering at his side while he seriously considered jamming his headphones on and turning up the volume. But most of the time it was sort of nice to have something that was just his. Or maybe it was theirs. Yamaguchi had a certain way of using it too, echoes of that original warmth blooming under Tsukishima’s ribs whenever he was greeted in the morning, when they parted after school, when it came in texts peppered with dumb emojis. And eventually, inevitably somehow, against his mouth as his hands grasped at the front of Yamaguchi’s jersey (another kind of warmth altogether). The latter especially… wasn’t bad. At all. And Yamaguchi had actually been quiet for once too.

 

Before Yamaguchi, no one had ever given Tsukishima a nickname.

But ‘before Yamaguchi’ didn’t really matter to him anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> this made me so nervous to put up lmao i don't have much faith in my writing yet and i'm not great at proofreading??? anyway i kind of liked the idea of the first time yamaguchi used 'tsukki' and then tsukishima's reaction to it, writing in his pov is p hard since i didn't want him to come off as too much of a dick? bc otherwise why would yamaguchi stick around for so long lol yamatsuki is v close to my heart
> 
> thanks for reading (ヾ;￣▽￣)ヾ
> 
> as I am a newbie pls feel free to shoot me ideas/pairings/a friendly hello on tumblr @xageyama


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